Monogamy has been found to enhance the cooperative social structure of insects such as bees, wasps and ants.
These insects - known as haplodiploids - are characterised by having a single queen and multiple drones.
Researchers have found that monogamous queens help bees cooperate because the females are more closely related to the males.
“Our research revealed that the two work together because the haplodiploid genetic system clumps cooperative genes together so that colonies benefit from having lots of like-minded individuals working together to achieve a common goal,” Professor Hanna Kokko from the Research School of Biology at ANU said.
Read more at Australian National University